Discharge means for tanks or bins

ABSTRACT

A vertical row of vertically spaced baffles is provided on the side wall of a receptacle for loose material such as grain, the series of baffles forming a vertical conduit from near the top to adjacent the bottom of the receptacle which has uniformly vertically spaced inlets into it at the upper end of each of the baffles. The baffles are secured to the side wall of the receptacle by either welding or bolting and have flanges for this purpose. The baffles provide conduit sections that have flat walls that incline outwardly in a downward direction so that each baffle forms a gradually widening conduit section. The grain or other loose material is drawn off from the top of the mass downwardly feeding into each of the baffles until the angle of repose of the material is reached, whereupon the material is fed into the next lower baffle, the unloading of the bin or tank thus being in successive layers from the topmost portion of the contents as discharge proceeds.

United States Patent Tomlinson [54] DISCHARGE MEANS FOR TANKS OR BINS[72] Inventor: William H. Tomlinson, Kansas City,

[73] Assignee: Columbian Steel Tank Company,

Kansas City, Mo.

[22] Filed: Sept. 2, 1970 21 Appl. No.: 69,035

[52] US. Cl ..222/464 [5 1] Int. Cl ..B65,g 65/36 [58] Field of Search...214/l7 R, 17 D, 16 R, 193/34;

[ 51 Dec. 26, 1972 Primary Examiner-Robert G. Sheridan Attorney-AlfredR. Fuchs [57] ABSTRACT A vertical row of vertically spaced baffles isprovided on the side wall of a receptacle for loose material such asgrain, the series of baffles forming a vertical conduit from near thetop to adjacent the bottom of the receptacle which has uniformlyvertically spaced inlets into it at the upper end of each of thebaffles. The baffles are secured to the side wall of the receptacle byeither welding or bolting and have flanges for this purpose. The bafflesprovide conduit sections that have flat walls that incline outwardly ina downward direction so that each baffle forms a gradually wideningconduit section. The grain or other loose material is drawn off from thetop of the mass downwardly feeding into each of the baffles until theangle of repose ofthe material is reached, whereupon the material is fedinto the next lower baffle, the unloading of the bin or tank thus beingin successive layers from the topmost portion of the contents asdischarge proceeds. 1

'3 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTED 05B 2 6 m2 SHEET 1 BF 2 1 INVENTOR{9- WILLIAM H. TOMLINSON eak ATTORNEY PATENTEU I 3.107.249

SHEET 2 OF 2 INV ENTOR WILLIAM H. TOMLINSON 7 19 BY WREQL.

ATTORNEY DISCHARGE MEANS FOR TANKS OR BINS It is a purpose of myinvention to provide a draw-off system for loose material from suchreceptacles as grain bins or other bins or. tanks for loose bulkmaterial, which provides for efficient and safe gravity unloadingthereof, by emptying the contents of the receptacle from the top, thusstabilizing downward and outward pressures during the unloadingoperation.

Sheet metal bins and tanks are ordinarily made up of rings of sheetmetal members. Dependent upon the height of such rings, one or moreopen-ended baffles are provided for each ring of the receptacle, thebaffles being in effect short conduit sections, which gradually increasein cross-sectional area from the top to the bottom of each thereof. Inorder to provide for the drawing off of the loose material, such asgrain, for example, in layers beginning at the top of the contents ofthe receptacle and proceeding with successive downwardly adjacent layersas the receptacle is beingemptied, the baffles are vertically spacedfrom each other so that an entrance is provided for the loose materialat the upper end of each of the baffles into which the material will befed by gravity until the level of the material is such that the materialwill lie at its angle or repose with the bottom edge of the surfacethereof at the top edge of a particular baffle, whereupon the nextbaffle therebelow will begin to receive the grain or other loosematerial at the top end thereof.

The baffles are preferably arranged in a vertical row along the sidewall of the tank or bin so that each baffle will discharge into the nextlower baffle and the series of baffles will form a discharge conduitextending from near the upper end of the receptacle to adjacent thebottom end thereof, where a discharge outlet conduit leads from thelowermost baffle of the series.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will appear as thedescription of the drawing proceeds. I desire to have it understood,however, that I do not intend to limit myself to the particular detailsshown or described except as defined in the claims.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of a grain storage bin showing myinvention applied thereto.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of a portion of thegrain bin showing the lower end thereof.

FIG. 3 is an inside face view of the portion of the grain bin shown inFIG. '2, and

FIG. 4 is a section taken on the line 44 of FIG. 3.

Referring in detail to the drawings, in FIG. 1 is shown a grain binwhich is made up of a plurality of rings of sheet metal sections orpanels 5. Said sections or panels can be made of corrugated or plainsheets, as may be found desirable. The sections or panels of each ringare provided with horizontal flanges 6 at the upper and lower endsthereof that are bolted together to connect the vertically adjacentrings with each other, a gasket 8 being provided between the flanges 6.The vertically adjacent edges of the sections of each of the rings aresimilarly flanged and connected together. The bottommost ring isprovided with an angular ring member 9 which is secured to the bottomedges of the sections of the lowermost ring of the bin and serves as ameans for mounting the bin on a base or foundation 10. The top of thebin is made up of a plurality of tapering sections 11 which are securedto a central connecting member 12, which is provided with a manhole 13through which the bin is filled, which manhole is provided with aremovable cover 14. A ventilator 15 is also provided on this centralmember 12.

Mounted on the inner face of the bin are baffle members 16 which arearranged in a vertical row or series extending from a point spaceddownwardly from, but near, the top of the bin, to adjacent the bottomthereof. It will be noted that, in the bin shown in FIG. 1, there isonly one baffle member 16 provided on one of the sectionsS of theuppermost ring thereof, while the other rings of said sections are shownas being provided with three baffle members. It is to be understood thatthe number of baffle members provided on each ring would depend upon theheight of the sheet metal sections 5 from which the ring is made. Adischarge spout 17 extends from the lowermost baffle 16. The baffles 16are arranged in a vertical row in vertical alignment with each other, aswill be obvious from FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

' Each of said baffles has a pair of downwardly diverging side walls 18,a wall 19 extending perpendicularly to the wall 18, and a pair offlanges 20 for attaching the baffles to the vertical wall 21 of the bin.The wall 19 inclines outwardly from the plane of the flanges 20 in adownward direction to diverge downwardly relative to the wall 21. Thebaffles each have an open top end which provides edge portions 23 on thetop end of each baffle that incline downwardly in a direction away fromthe wall 19, and each of said baffles also has an open bottom end whichprovides a similarly inclined edge 24 on each of the walls 18. Each ofthe baffles thus serves as a conduit that gradually increases incross-sectional area from the top end to the bottom end of the baffle,to provide a downwardly flaring passage therethrough.

Upon reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 it will be noted that the spacingbetween the bottom open end of each baffle and the top open end of thenext lower baffle is the same throughout the vertical series of baffles.The vertical series of baffles thus provide a conduit for the dischargeof the material from the bin from near the top thereof to adjacent thebottom thereof with inlets into the conduit at regularly spacedintervals along the same. The discharge spout 17 has an open end 25located within the passage through the lowermost baffle member 16 and isprovided with a closure member 26 at the outer end thereof.

Assuming now that the grain bin or other receptacle for loose materialis filled to capacity and withdrawal of the material therefrom is tobegin, the closure 26 on the spout 17 is opened and the flow of thematerial will begin downwardly through the baffle members 16 insuccession from the uppermost to the lowermost one thereof. The materialwill feed into the upper end of the uppermost baffle 16 until the angleof repose of the material stored in the bin is reached, the dotted line27 in FIG. 1 indicating such an angle'of repose for the material beingdischarged from the bin or receptacle shown in FIG. 1. When thebottommost end of the resulting inclined surface of the materialcoincides with the top end of the wall 19 of the uppermost baffle member16 the feeding of the material into this baffle member ceases and thefeeding of the material, such as grain, into the next lower bafflemember 16, at the upper end thereof, begins.

The flow of the material into the baffle members does not take placethrough the gaps between the bottom edges and the top edges of adjacentbaffle members below the one to which the material is being fed becauseof the pressure on the material in the remainder of the bin, the slidingof the material crosswise of the bin toward the top end of a bafflemember only taking place when the pressure has been relievedsufficiently by removal of the layer of material that was fed into thenext higher baffle member. Thus, each layer of the material in the binthat can be said to be bounded by the angle of repose thereof at thebottom of the layer is fed into the conduit, made up of the series ofbaffle members, when said layer is the topmost layer of the material inthe bin and the layers of said material will be successively fed intothe conduit made up of the baffles or conduit sections 16 in a downwarddirection.

In FIG. 2 the top surface of the material, which is indicated by thenumeral 28, is indicated at 2 9, and the baffle member 16, which isshown with the top edge of its wall 19 aligned with the bottom edge ofthe top surface 29 of said material, has ceased feeding the materialdownwardly into the next succeeding baffle member and from that into thelowermost baffle member and out through the discharge spout 17. Saidmaterial will now be fed into the next lower baffle member 16 until thetop edge 29' of said material is reached. Then the discharge will occurinto the top of the bottommost bafi'le member 16 until the top surface29" of the material 28 is reached, the action being substantially thesame as described in connection with the three lowermost baffle membersthroughout the rest of the baffle members or conduit sections that formthe discharge conduit of the bin. By withdrawing the material from thebin in layers, beginning with the topmost layer and then in turn eachsucceeding layer, pressures on the bin wall are stabilized.

What I claim is:

1. In a storage receptacle having an upstanding wall, and a plurality ofvertically spaced, vertically elongated, upstanding baffles adjacentsaid wall, said baffles each having a pair of side walls extending fromthe inner face of said upstanding wall, and a wall extending betweensaid side walls in spaced relation to said upstanding wall.

2. in a storage receptacle having an upstanding wall, a plurality ofvertically spaced, vertically elongated, up-

standing baffles adjacent said wall, and means for mounting said baffleson the inner face of said wall in a vertical row in vertical alignmentwith each other.

3. In the storage receptacle claimed in 1 in which

1. In a storage receptacle having an upstanding wall, and a plurality ofvertically spaced, vertically elongated, upstanding baffles adjacentsaid wall, said baffles each having a pair of side walls extending fromthe inner face of said upstanding wall, and a wall extending betweensaid side walls in spaced relation to said upstanding wall.
 2. In astorage receptacle having an upstanding wall, a plurality of verticallyspaced, vertically elongated, upstanding baffles adjacent said wall, andmeans for mounting said baffles on the inner face of said wall in avertical row in vertical alignment with each other.
 3. In the storagereceptacle claimed in 1 in which said baffles are vertically aligned andsaid side walls of each baffle are flat and diverge downwardly and saidwall extending between said side walls is flat and diverges downwardlyrelative to the upstanding wall of said receptacle to provide a shortvertical downwardly flaring passage through said baffle.